Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
A new law to “save the animals”
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Endangered Species Act was transformative in protecting animals from extinction. Vox’s Benji J...
#MahsaAmini was just the beginning
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 22-year-old Iranian died in police custody after being arrested for wearing her hijab improperly...
If Republicans win the midterms
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
They’ve got a few legislative ideas and a LOT of investigative ones. Vox’s Rachel Cohen and Ben ...
Fettermania
07 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
John Fetterman, the 6-foot-8, hoodie and cargo shorts-wearing Democratic candidate for Senate in Pen...
Small nukes
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Vladimir Putin keeps threatening to use smaller nuclear weapons to win his war. Author J. Peter Scob...
Student loan forgiveMESS
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
President Biden’s plan to forgive billions of dollars in student debt is both historic and controv...
Puerto Rico’s power crisis
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Days after Ian, most Floridians now have their power back. Weeks after Fiona, more than 100,000 Puer...
The Supreme Court is back and “even more consequential”
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
According to Vox’s Ian Millhiser (and no, he hasn’t forgotten they just overturned Roe). This ep...
Brett Favre and the Mississippi welfare fraud
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An extraordinary case of fraud is unfolding in Mississippi, where a chummy cadre of nonprofit leader...
The ’90s throwback no one wants
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Elvedin Pasic lived through the Bosnian genocide in the early 1990s. So why is one of Bosnia’s lea...
Europe’s looming energy crisis
28 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Pipelines are leaking, winter is coming, and concerns over an energy crisis in Europe are growing. V...
Can Beto flip Texas?
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Republicans have firmly held the Texas governorship since 1995. Beto O’Rourke’s campaign is both...
Putin’s fake elections
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Russian president is calling on reservists and holding fake referenda to legitimize his war. Was...
I wish I was a little bit taller
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I wish I was a baller. I wish there was a doc who’d break my legs, I would call her. This episode ...
Johnson & Johnson’s “bankruptcy”
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of people say Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder gave them cancer. They’re suing — but ...
Pakistan wants climate reparations
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After catastrophic flooding, Pakistani people are demanding better disaster management from their go...
Is Patagonia fleecing the IRS?
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The billionaire founder of Patagonia is giving away his company to fight climate change. He’s also...
You can’t spell “dysfunction” without the UN
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The war in Ukraine has demonstrated just how dysfunctional the United Nations is. Uri Friedman, mana...
The true story of The Woman King
16 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The historical epic The Woman King, in theaters today, is set in the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th ...
I should have applied for a fraudulent PPP loan
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the coronavirus pandemic disrupted business in the US, the government sent billions of dollars to...
Is Ukraine winning now?
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A recent Ukrainian counteroffensive seems to have caught Russia on its back foot. That could have co...
When an election denier becomes election chief
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A quartet of 2020 election deniers are running for secretary of state this year in key swing states,...
“Bringing the border to Biden”
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Texas and Arizona's governors are giving migrants bus tickets to the capital. The mayor of Washingto...
The queen is dead
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Long live the king. This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy and Hady Mawajdeh, fact-checked by Se...
The water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What’s happening in Jackson is hardly unique: Cities and states across the US are setting themselv...
Your long Covid questions, answered
07 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of people have long Covid; countless more could get it. Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez answe...
Curious Georgia
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Prosecutor Fani Willis and a special grand jury have some questions for the man with the yellow hair...
It ain’t over 'til the crawdads sing
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Delia Owens’s runaway bestseller Where the Crawdads Sing tells the story of a killing in North C...
Heat waves been faking me out
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As devastating heat waves like the recent one in China become more common, we’re going to need new...
What do we owe future humans?
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A new wave of philanthropists wants to make charity more effective. They’re focused not just on th...
Instagram’s identity crisis
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you think Instagram sucks now, it’s by design. Vox's Rebecca Jennings and Platformer's Casey Ne...
The Island of Explained: It’s electric!
27 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A magical theme park ride on the Island of Explained demonstrates the damage done by fossil fuels an...
Is Russia a state sponsor of terror?
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Six months into its escalation of war with Ukraine, the calls to declare Russia a state sponsor of t...
Health care’s post-Roe nightmare
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe has implications far beyond abortion; it complicates ...
RIP OAN
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A cable news network tailor-made for the former president is getting canceled. The Daily Beast’s J...
Putin’s war comes to Russia
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A car bomb killed Russian commentator Darya Dugina over the weekend. The bomb may have been meant fo...
FREE YSL
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two of the biggest rappers in the world, Young Thug and Gunna, are behind bars. And their bars will ...
Hollywood’s IP industrial complex
20 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Noel and Sean join Sam Sanders to kick off the third episode of his new Vulture show, “Into It.”...
You know nothing, HBO
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
HBO hopes to win the streaming wars with House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones. But GoT’...
Merrick Garland’s dilemma
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Justice Department is investigating Donald Trump, but the ex-president's still-large base likely...
The fatwa against Salman Rushdie
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Was never about Salman Rushdie. Journalist Robin Wright explains. This episode was produced by Avish...
Dark Brandon
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A meme that mocks President Biden has been transformed by supporters to celebrate his recent wins. B...
Russia’s back-to-school plan for Ukraine
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia is paying teachers big bucks to teach a pro-Kremlin curriculum in Ukraine. It’s part of a c...
The Island of Explained: Listen up!
13 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kiarra and Izii are having an argument when they are unexpectedly transported to the Island of Expla...
Liz Cheney is losing (and winning)
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Wyoming Republican will likely lose her primary, but she’s winning over a lot of Democrats in ...
The New Right’s pay pal
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From politicians to podcasters, one man’s money unites the New Right. Bloomberg’s Max Chafkin ex...
Meet the New Right
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The newest conservative dissidents want to radically reshape the Republican party and American democ...
Raid-a-Lago
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Florida man's beach house searched by FBI. This episode was produced by Haleema Shah and Avishay Art...
Brittney Griner for the Merchant of Death
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Viktor Bout might be the most successful arms dealer in history. The US could let him go free if Rus...
Authoritarianism, baby!
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán traveled to Texas for CPAC this week. Back home, he’s trying to fight p...
Monkeypox is a queer emergency
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gay men, queer people, and their partners represent an overwhelming majority of monkeypox cases. But...
Did Joe Manchin just save the planet?
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Probably not, but he did finally compromise on the Inflation Reduction Act (née Build Back Better),...
Pelosi in Taiwan
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
China didn’t want Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan. Neither did the White House. Politico’s ...
America has Afghanistan’s money
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The US froze billions in Afghanistan’s central bank reserves when the Taliban took control. Now it...
The Island of Explained: Plant-based party
30 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An invitation to a vegan party sends producers Kiarra and Izii to the Island of Explained, where a g...
Fighting climate despair
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change has driven some environmental activists to extremes. We talk about overcoming despair...
Are we in a recession?
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The US economy has shrunk for two consecutive quarters. That’s technically a recession. But econom...
Riding in Cars with Robots
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The data is in on autonomous cars: They are crashing, but they're still doing a lot better than regu...
Replacing Boris Johnson
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Britain’s Conservative party is spending the summer choosing its next prime minister. The Atlantic...
McMoscow
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 1990 opening of a McDonald's in Russia heralded not just burgers and fries but, get this, a new ...
Wrestling with Vince McMahon
22 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The CEO who turned World Wrestling Entertainment into a global brand has retired after nearly 40 yea...
Dry Hot American Summer
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the world heats up, the American West is drier than at any period in the past 1,200 years. But do...
FYI those telescope photos are kinda fake
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
But the images from the Webb Space Telescope still provide our best look yet at the formation of the...
BA.5 and DIY Covid
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Surging cases, Paxlovid rebounds, and apathy everywhere. Vox’s Dr. Keren Landman explains how to n...
What the January 6 committee has found (so far)
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A congressional committee set out to offer the definitive story of the attack on the Capitol on Janu...
The Island of Explained: The missing firefly
16 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Luz the firefly is missing, and producers Izii and Sara want to know why. They take a trip to the Is...
“To [REDACTED] a Mockingbird”
15 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Some conservative parents are trying to get books about race and sexuality banned from libraries and...
Shinzo Abe’s call to arms
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe may have given his agenda to militarize Japan ...
The case of the fake Basquiats
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Art crime is booming and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings (or at least some very realistic forgeri...
Joe Biden’s Saudi vacation
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Candidate Biden said he would make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” on the world stage. Now President B...
Joe Biden’s tampon shortage
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
No, President Biden didn’t cause the tampon shortage — or any of the recent shortages. But that ...
UFOMG
08 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Congress just had its first hearings on UFOs in over 50 years. We revisit a 2021 episode where the N...
What if you could talk without speaking?
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A groundbreaking new study claims to have found a way for a fully paralyzed person to communicate en...
How the US learned to love sanctions
06 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The US hoped sanctions would end Russia’s war in Ukraine quickly. We revisit our conversation with...
Ask for Jane
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Before Roe v. Wade, Eleanor Oliver was a Jane: a member of a group in Chicago that helped women get ...
This country is a lot right now
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The past week/month/year/pandemic has taken a toll on a lot of people’s mental health. And the US ...
Roe v. Wade v. God
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A rabbi, a priest, and an imam walk into the abortion debate. The priest wins. This episode was prod...
Abortion pills
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s safe and easy to end a pregnancy during the first trimester using a pair of FDA-approved pill...
Trigger bans
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court’s decision was most immediately felt in states that pegged abortion bans to the ...
The end of Roe v. Wade
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court overturned a 49-year-old precedent that secured the right to an abortion. Irin Car...
Is Ukraine losing now?
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The US is spending billions to arm Ukraine against Russian invaders. But without the proper training...
The rise and fall of the “millennial lifestyle subsidy”
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Venture capitalists spent years subsidizing the price of things like Uber rides and food delivery. T...
From Russia with cash
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Oligarchs from Russia and beyond stash their cash in British banks, which play a central role in the...
What if we saw the gunshot wounds?
17 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
John Temple was the editor of Rocky Mountain News in April 1999, when two students committed mass mu...
A gun policy game-changer
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
America’s gun violence epidemic is a public health crisis. After 24 years of blocked funding, Cong...
Gun laws that work
15 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says tougher gun laws wouldn’t have stopped the Uvalde shooter. He’s wron...
Let’s untangle the Second Amendment
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It wasn’t until 2008 that the US Supreme Court established what a confusing sentence in the Consti...
Has the gun control movement failed?
13 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You might look at school shootings and think “Yes, obviously.” But two people who have been stud...
ConGRADulations, fellow kids
10 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ten months ago the faculty of Cramer Hill Elementary set out to get their kids back on track after a...
Adderall via Instagram
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The mental health startup Cerebral benefited from pandemic-era changes to federal telehealth laws. B...
Ugraine
08 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia is weaponizing food by blockading Ukraine’s grain exports and withholding its own until oth...
Boris Johnson presents: Motel Rwanda
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The British government will deport UK-bound migrants to Rwanda. It’s part of a larger trend of ric...
Innocence is not enough
06 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court is going to let Arizona kill Barry Jones, a man whose rape and murder convictions ...
Let’s vent about guns
03 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We opened up our hotline. You called and asked questions. We found answers. This episode was produce...
Why the economy feels bad right now
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The stock market tumble and crypto crash are symptoms of a broader shift in the US economy. Jacob Go...
How often can you get Covid?
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Does your immunity still last for months? We asked a researcher who has been studying omicron reinfe...
Can women fix the police?
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Police departments across the US are signing a pledge to increase the share of women in their ranks,...
The shooters were 18
27 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Writer and parent Joanna Schroeder wrote a guide for parents about what to look out for and how to i...
Monkeypox!?!?
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Good news: Epidemiologists don’t think monkeypox will be as bad as Covid-19. Bad news: We stopped ...
How to not give up on gun control
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Vox’s Marin Cogan, who lived through a school shooting herself, explains why she hasn’t given up...